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so you don't miss your favorite show. and with just a single word, find all the answers you're looking for - because getting what you need should be simple, fast, and easy. download the xfinity my account app or go online today. topping this hour, on a night of blockbuster stories, reaching deep in the white house and touching deep in the russia story. including the new book that cnn obtained an early copy of, there is more, an item in the new york times speaks of the president's ongoing rage of the probe. did he try to stifle the effort and obstruct justice. here's the lead. president trump gave firm instructions in march, the white house's top lawyer, stopped the

attorney general from recusing himself in the justice department's investigation to whether mr. trump's associates had helped a russian campaign to disrupt the 2016 election. joining us now is jeffrey tuben. michael zeldin. and john dean. jeff tuben, do you think this is a significant piece of a possible obstruction case? >> i do. because, you know, you have to look at the full context of the president's efforts regarding the russia investigation in the spring of last year. obviously, we know he fired james comey, who was leading that investigation. he did that, not as he said publicly because of comey's investigation of hillary clinton, he did that because of comey's investigation of russia. here we have another example of the president trying to get ahold, control the russia

investigation, by telling his white house council to tell jeff sessions not to recuse himself, to keep control, and have -- and, you know, one of the remarkable things about this new york times story is, he's saying, where is my roy kohn. roy kohn was one of the most corrupt and evil lawyers of the 20th century. he also represented donald trump at one time. to think the attorney general of the united states, who represents not the president, but who represents all americans and runs the department of justice, should behave like this crooked lawyer, roy kohn is astonishing for any president to say. >> was it appropriate for don mcgahn to go to jeff sessions. universally everyone has said jeff sessions has done the right thing by recusing himself. that's what he had to do. if he doesn't represent

president trump, who represents the office of the president was it appropriate for him to do what he did. >> if he leaned on the attorney general on behalf of the president to not recuse himself, that would raise suspicion. if he merely communicated the president's feelings about it, so the attorney general could crank that into his decision. that's probably a little less offensive. one of the things i think he should put in context, and remember when we talk about obstruction of justice. it's an endeavor statute as well. you have to accomplish the obstruction, merely your efforts to do so can get you on the wrong side of the law. >> even if the obstruction doesn't work, but you made the effort, you can be charged with that? >> that is correct. >> four days before james comey

was fired, an aid was up on capitol hill asking a congressional staffer for dirt on comey. that sounds highly unusual, what do you make of it? >> i've just never heard of 13 years in the department, i never heard of a personal aid to the attorney general, going to capitol hill to try to dig up dirt on anyone, really. it's not their job, it's not their role, it's not in the traditions of the department. i find that reporting odd, if it's true, that somebody would go and try to at the attorney general's direction, try to find derogatory information on the fbi director. testimony raises an interesting question about the role of the attorney general in coming up with the reasons for the fbi director being fired. in other words, the attorney

general and the deputy attorney general had a memo that sort of purported to lay out reasons why the fbi director should no longer continue in his position, and this report cuts against any support for the fact that there was any substantive reason why the fbi director was fired. we know why the fbi director was fired. the president has said why he was fired. he was fired because the president thought that that would end or curtail the russia investigation. >> michael, you know robert mueller, you worked with him in the past do you think this reporting of the times would be of interest to mueller? >> it will be of interest, but i don't think it's going to be december positive of anything in particular. the attorney general is going to recuse himself because the code of regulations requires him to,

the president asked if there's any moment there, that sessions will not consider recusing himself. to jeffrey toobin's point, if it is part of a pattern of trying to obstruct mueller's investigation, thinking that if sessions stays on, sessions is not going to either appoint mueller or if he does appoint mueller, not going to give mueller the mandate that rosen stein did, then possibly, in a more corrupt way, that's obstruction of justice, i think on its face, it's not all that terrible because jeffrey -- attorney general sessions did not listen to mcgahn and did what the law requires him to do, which is to recuse himself. >> you're looking at this phone call as if that's all we know about it.

remember, at least according to the times story, if it's accurate, the reason he went -- he tried to get sessions not to recuse himself is because he didn't have someone like roy kohn there protecting him. he wanted the attorney general to protect him. that is a corrupt motive. >> that is not why the attorney general -- it's not the job of the attorney general, so it's not i think it -- if again, if the times story is accurate, it's a lot less benign than you're making it out to be. >> it could be benign or corrupt. i'm not disagreeing with you completely, all i'm saying is that it really depends on your perspective, in the new york times article, trump has also said he was looking for a bobby kennedy or eric holder. it wasn't just roy kohn, he was looking for an attorney general

that would have his back. those are the names he mentioned. kohn, kennedy and holder. it's not as corrupt necessarily. so, you know, to anderson's question to me, is this going to be of interest to mueller? absolutely. will it be despositive of an obstruction of justice case? probably not. another interesting fact of the road we're going down. >> someone who was the white house council under nixon, don mcgahn is at the center of a lot of conversations, knows a lot about the inner workerings of the white house, what was said and wasn't said, does he -- if he works for the office of the white house, not for donald trump, does he have an obligation to report anything that he feels is improper? not a -- there's an ethical obligation he has, he represents

the office of the president and not the occupant. if there's wrongdoing going on in the office, he may have to go first and say to whoever occu occupies the office, stop it, this is illegal, and i represent this entity, and you're violating the law. if he can't stop it, he may have to report hire. it's not an automatic situation, i don't know all the bars he's admitted to it's somewhat governed by which bar he belongs to. >> this notion of an aid to sessions going to a congressional staffer looking for dirt on comey, how unusual does that sound to you? >> that sounds very unusual. that is way out of bounds of the forms of the department of justice.

even as political a one as nixon had with mitchell and then klindes. this is a political as well as a legal story. let's bring in the political pan panel. and go. van, what do you make of the reporting tonight? >> i mean, this is disturb will. >> first of all, just the idea that you have the president of the united states saying, i want someone to protect me. sir, you're supposed to be protecting us. we're already in a bizarre world, for him to mention president obama and john kennedy. president obama was never accused of cuddling up to an enemy of the country like osama bin laden. president obama had osama bin laden killed. john kennedy was never accused

of cuddling up to castro. he confronted castro. we have a situation now where the president of the united states wants protection, rather than try to protect us. and can't make a distinction in his mind between the situation he's in and any other president. we've never had a president accused of this kind of stuff. which is why it doesn't make sense that the attorney general will save him from it. >> i think eric holder was a great watchdog for president obama, he -- >> what was obama accused of? >> he was the only attorney general in history, to get accused of contempt of congress. in fact the only cabinet member, he held the line on things like fast and furious. >> let's not relitigate the obama hearings. >> let me say this, if the administration, if the president was looking for something on james comey, the easiest place to look would have been on harry

reid's letter, where he accused him of violating the hatch act. or he could look at what podesta and hillary clinton themselves said. in terms of influencing the election. >> you're saying they shouldn't have sent a staffer? >> i think it's ab surt to say they sent a staffer there. >> this is part of what our president has done. he's trying to bend the democracy to his own ought kratic will. the white house must never reach out to the attorney general to influence him. he tweeted out the other day that huma abedin should go to jail. >> i think he said she should be

prosecuted. >> i didn't call janet directly for something like that. this is a guy who does not understand the norms of democracy, he wants to be an autocrat. this is what we're watching in realtime. >> every attorney general looks out for the president against political attacks. i challenge you to find anyone here on this panel, to find someone in your life who defends you the way that eric holder and loretta lynch defended president obama. >> absolutely. >> guys. >> you guys are twisting this around. >> trump didn't do anything wrong here. >> president obama was never accused of criminal activity the way you're suggesting. the message that was sent to attorney general sessions by recusing himself, that wouldn't take any of the pressure off from the opponents, whether they be in the media or political opponents across the board. he's absolutely right about that, if that was a message that

was sent, i think he's spot on, but as far as -- >> come on -- >> you guys -- >> your attorney general. >> if president 3w5u78 in the same situation, and this was being said about president obama, you would be saying, no big deal, no problem, you have -- it's complete -- i don't understand how you guys can have a completely different set of standards for one president versus the other. >> hey, the way that loretta lynch and eric holder defended president -- >> no, not in a criminal investigation, of course. >> listen, if you are a part of an administration, you are going to stick up for the administration, that doesn't mean you're going to obstruct justice. >> what did president trump do that was -- >> president obama -- >> all right, let's -- we have had this conversation, let's take a quick break. later, what michael wolf's book appears to reveal about the president. i am just trying to learn as much as i can about my culture.

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socks shouldn't fall down. fixed. lack of arch support? fixed. socks shouldn't have an annoying seam. fixed. the result? socks so comfortable we've been able to sell and donate over two point five million pairs. get an additional 20% off your first order at bombas.com. talking about a late breaking report in the new york times on the president's effort to keep attorney general sessions from looking into russia. back now with the panel. we haven't heard from you. >> the lack of trust that the inner circle, including a mcgahn aid had to the president's ultimate motivation, in fact, the president for months had been trying to find a way to fire comey, according to the reporting, this aid had found out that he could fire comey,

yet he didn't let the president know, because he was too concerned about what his ultimate motivation was. that's not something that's normal in a presidential administration. >> yeah, trump's conception of the presidency, right? people around him being essentially his bodyguards, his protectors. this idea that they aren't separate from him, and have a responsibility to the country. that mainly the responsibility is to him. everything is personalized, it's a recurring theme. his entire misunderstanding of the role of the presidency, the role of the cabinet members. that's one of the things that stood out to me, and we'll see more of. >> sessions is already a weak attorney general if it's true that an aide of his was looking for dirt on comey. >> have you republicans saying he should resign.

>> for a president that wanted jeff sessions to be his bobby kennedy. the amount of leaks and people who have left. it's stunning to have all these hired guns around him. >> loyalty is a two-way street. when you are crapping on all of your own people. john kennedy never hung bobby out to dry. look at the way that trump has treated the people around him. people came on television and said, oh, it's because of the way -- >> oh, no, it's russia. >> loyalty is a two-way street. he wants one way loyalty to protect him, it's supposed to go the other direction, to the american people and you're supposed to, having been in that building. for a lot of people that worked in that building, it's so

painful to watch. that pride, that sense that you're there on behalf of something that's going to be in your obituary, this is the most important job you're ever going to have. it's just pain and wrong. >> i was going to say, i think it's important that we don't con nature a process story that talks about conversations that or may not have happened about the actual conduct or conversations, we heard from the legal experts this last go around, most of them who said, there wasn't anything illegal that happened there. there are conversations that may or may not have happened. >> jeff toobin, you believe this as part of a piece is more significant? >> yeah, i think it's quite the opposite of what jason is saying. there's a criminal investigation underway now. to determine whether these activities were illegal. the firing of comey, and all the

related activities. i'm not here to say it is criminal, the idea that it somehow is a settled question, that it's not criminal i mean that -- >> hold on, you're saying this story. that there's activity in this story that's criminal behavior? >> i'm saying it's possibly evidence of criminal behavior, absolutely. the idea that -- no, i'm sorry to disappoint you. but the idea that the president is trying to cling to the attorney general because he will protect him from a criminal investigation of the president himself, that doesn't strike you as possibly related to the issue of obstruction of justice? >> it sure strikes me that way. >> that's not what it says in the story. if the president didn't do anything wrong. why are you saying there's a crimin criminal. >> that's not the standard. >> explain why that's not the

standard. >> obstruction of justice can take place, even if there's not an underlying crime. if you corruptly stop an investigation, if you lie, if you cheat to stop the fbi from investigating you for x, it doesn't matter if you are guilty of x. obstruction of justice can take place without an underlying crime. >> john dean also went further and said, even if the obstruction wasn't successful, just the fact that you attempted it is criminal. >> watergate being the classic example of that. the watergate cover-up failed since it led to the resignation of the president and a whole bunch of people going to prison. it was a failed cover-up, but it was still illegal and a cover-up. >> we also knew a crime had been committed within 24 hours of the break in of the watergate hotel.

we don't know of any crime in this case. in terms of the hearsay. i think it's wishful thinking that the shoe is about to fall. obstruction, it really is tampering with the evidence or intim dating a witness, a juror. or outright lying to them to change the outcome, in this case, all we have is, perhaps there was somebody lying. but that's the new york times, that's not a court record. >> here's where i think the american people are trying to get their heads wrapped around this. you can do a bunch of stuff as president, you can't do it with a corrupt motive. it's becoming hard to figure out what is the innocent motive in all of this stuff? >> firing comey. everyone in washington, d.c., was anti-comey until president trump fired him.

but it was started by harry reid, john podesta and hillary clinton. >> you like comey less than you used to, i like him more than i used to. >> i bet you like bannon more than you used to. >> there was the crime of the century during that election. a hostile foreign power hacked the united states and tried to swing the election to donald trump who then won. there is increasing evidence that mr. trump's relatives, campaign chairman and others cooperated in a conspiracy to do that. we don't know that yet. was it committed by donald trump? >> you sound like a kid writing out his christmas list to santa, like you're hoping there was collusion. there hasn't been one shred of evidence saying there was collusion. >> that's simply not true.

donald trump jr., jared kushner, all met with the russians with the stated intent of gaining from the russian government as they were told in e-mails, dirt on hillary clinton. >> they were told -- >> wait, that -- >> months, months before. >> you don't actually believe they were meeting for an adoption program? >> let's just be real. you don't really believe that. >> i will agree with you. let me say this, people in campaigns constantly are hearing from other folks, oh, we got something on your opponent. >> from foreign governments? >> not from a pop star in russia saying, this is coming from the russian government? >> when it's acted on, and blown off. >> magically, it doesn't matter. the other breaking news. there's that law in news about cnn has obtained a copy of the bombshell book on the white house, michael wolff.

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white house. fire and fury, before talking about it, it's important to know that some of his reporting has been corroborated, some errors have already been identified. wolff paints many scenes without directly quoting anyone. he explains his methods saying, it is worth noting some of the journalistic conundrums i faced when dealing with the trump administration, many of them the lack of experience of its principles. these challenges have included dealing with off the record or deep background material that was later casually put on the record. sources who provided accounts and confidence and shared them widely as though liberated by their first utterances. the element gobsmacked retelling of otherwise private and deep background conversations.

every where in this story is the president's own voice, shared on a daily basis, sometimes as he utters it. let's get to a key passage in the book. president trump returning from an overseas trip. this is avenues of the trump tower meeting this could form the basis for cover-up allegations if it happened. wolf writes, the president insisted that the meeting at trump tower was purely and simply about russian adoption policy, that's what was discussed period. period. even though it was likely, if not certain, that the times had the incriminating e-mail chain. it was quite possible jared and ivanka knew the times had this e-mail chain. no one should let on to the more problematic discussion about hillary clinton, it was a real example of denial and cover-up, that is wolf's own take, our panel is back to give their

take, you're shaking your head. >> this is a man who threw his own son under the bus. under air force one in this case. he should have known the truth was going to come out. staff guys like me we're all expendable. we know that. trump went out and destroyed his son's credibility for one news cycle. not even, he didn't get a good news cycle. >> why would he insist this was about adoption. everyone else knew it wasn't about adoption. >> you know, that was the most convoluted. >> the statement that went out was saying it was about adoption. >> this is not the first reporter to tell us that. >> i think that really was his understanding of the meeting at that time. i don't think he's necessarily

throwing his son under the bus. >> the president of the united states really believed the meeting was about adoption. even though anyone knows adoption is a code word for sanctions. why say it's about adoption? >> i don't think adoptions is u used synonymously with sanctions. >> yeah, it is. >> it's code for the magnitsky act. >> you would think the president of the united states has some professionals -- >> as someone who voted for sanctions. >> you never heard of the magnitsky act? >> i've heard of the act. but. >> i have some real problems with this book. when the shattered book about hillary clinton came out, i bashed that book.

someone who ran for office, or is elected. if you work for them, and you work that hard. and you still want to be a part of their team, you do not go bash your principal to a member of the press. someone like paul who i respect has done a fantastic josh advocated for his previous boss. i can't find a time paul bashed president clinton up and down. we've seen the first lady and former deputy chief of staff, scenes attributed to them are completely false, and completely. >> it goes back to -- >> the fact that you have people that are saying this, really disturbs me, as troubling. it's troubling with the sourcing and the way this was all put together. today, what we should be talking about is the fact that the stock market went over 25,000.

this is all great news. the fact that we're getting pulled into kardashians on the potomac. >> it's not quite that, when you have steve bannon who is as close to the president -- >> i was disappointed he didn't come out and say anything about this, or apologize. >> and the direct quotes in the book are bannon quotes, bannon is the guy that was bringing michael wolf into the white house. it's troubling that he didn't come out and apologize or say those things. this book is an atrack on the presidency, not just trump. >> you go back to the reporting over the past year and a half, we were all stunned. 3020 sources, 30 sources. the fact that some of these people went on the record may be a surprise.

>> these quotes have been coming out for a year. >> it seems like -- trump seemed to be okay with inviting michael wolff into the white house at times. he was holed up at a hotel across the street from the white house, people would go over there. he had 200 interviews. i think it speaks to the chaos and the vacuum in the vanity of the white house, inviting a reporter in there in this way. a reporter they didn't vet. >> let's take a quick break. more from the book, talking about ivanka trump and jared kushner, what he's claiming they're worried about when we continue. is this a phone?

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see how much you can save. choose by the gig or unlimited. xfinity mobile. a new kind of network designed to save you money. call, visit, or go to xfinitymobile.com. more now from michael wolff fire and fury. cnn has obtained a copy of the book. i want to get a reaction from squasen on what it says. you're mentioned twice. part of what wolf says a private army of leakers and defenders. >> i'm clearly on board with president trump's team, and i'm a president supporter of the president, someone who worked closely on the campaign trail as was a bunch of other folks who

are currently in the white house, as far as this outside team, look, i'm a strong supporter of the president, i'm proud to say that every day of the week. >> i'm going to read another passage. his sourcing is unclear, he faced a number of journalistic conundrums because of the white house's lack of experience and procedures for setting parameters. here's what he wrote and what steve bannon told him. >> the kushner position was not held by the fact that the president had been gleefully telling people jared could solve the middle east problem because jared knew all the crooks in jerusalem. ivanka is terrified said a satisfied bannen. three key words now. ivanka is terrified. >> it had been reported that jared was pushing the fwrez to fire comey, and bannon too charlie rose in october said

that was the worst political decision ever made, at least in recent political history. you get a sense of why they were angry, or worried too about what comey could be looking for and finding. >> trump himself, in talking about a red line might be in terms of moore has talked about finances as well. he said that on the record. in some ways, we talk about the ways in which a lot of this book, we'll figure out if it's corroborated, who his sources were. all of this reporting has been out there, this line about ivanka being terrified about someone going near the family finances or digging too deeply into that. trump has cen willy said the same thing. >> i really think this book is partisan. this is an answer to primary colors or blood sport, i work with john boehner. wolf says that he did not know who john boehner was. john boehner has played golf with donald trump for year year. they text each other.

he absolutely knows john boehner, i talked to sean spicer earlier. >> the alternative explanation is that he forgot or it didn't happen. >> they were in communication. i know as soon as he was elected, john was one of the first people to get directly to him and congratulate him. i talked to sean spicer earlier tonight about the access that wolf had, he said, if you read that first statement about him kind of attributing quotes and back filling and so forth, that's what he was doing, he did have access to bannon, bannon should be denying some of this stuff. it would be helpful if he would. he's moved over in a different position right now, but sean was skeptical this guy had the access he claimed to have. finally, the statement, and jason knows, he was in the tower every day, i was there, not every day, but i was in contact with them. they always thought they would wing. that's what was amazing to me, when mr. trump got the nomination, i was surprised.

they all were -- >> wasn't kellyanne conway the night of the election, didn't she start giving interviews, saying the rnc didn't give them the kind of support they needed. >> i can tell you, kellyanne is someone i worked with closely on the campaign trail. she is someone who in private small meetings always expressed confidence we were going to win. even to the president himself. i remember down the home stretch, we're trying to make decisions about what state we were going to go to. the president kept saying, we got to go back to pennsylvania. you guys are a bunch of idiots, the reasons republicans don't win pennsylvania, we don't go there enough. i know what i'm doing, we're going to pennsylvania, we're going to win this thing. i spent hundreds of hours with the president on the campaign trail in 2016, never once did he ever say he thought we were going to lose, he wasn't dedicated. >> that went for everyone -- >> you guys spent a lot of time picking through the book and

trying to point out things this isn't right, that isn't right. i'm not comfortable myself with some of the sourcing of this book, how do you cover a train wreck in a zoo next to a circus? and that's the problem, trying to figure out how to cover this white house even for those of us here has been difficult. you have to eat the whole hamburger here, yes, in fact there's stuff in there i'm not comfortable with. there's stuff in there that fits a pattern and fits with a lot of stuff out there already. >> he's selling books. he's given wishful affirmati affirmations -- >> i will tell you this. >> let me say this -- >> every republican convention i went to for 10 years, always had primary colors are now clinton cash out there. >> why did trump let him in. why did trump let him in. >> i don't think he was let in, that's what sean told me. >> the problem of the book, for the reporting we have, is this, and i wrote this down for the coverage. this is wolf's words. my indelible impression of

talking to senior trump advisers and observing them through the first year of his presidency, they all 100% came to believe he was incapable of functioning in his job. this is the crisis we face, it's evident to an outsider and apparent to an insider. >> someone who was involved in the campaign, and not to the extent of jason, that is absolutely not true. people did not universally think that trump wasn't -- >> he's talking about now. >> well, we stay -- >> don't talk like that in the white house. >> i talk to the white house every few days, and they don't feel like -- >> rex tillerson has denied -- >> jason -- >> people in the white house absolutely do not talk like this. whoever is saying this is -- i'll tell you where a lot of this probably comes from, it probably comes from people who spend no time around the president. probably people on capitol hill or out in the bureaucracy. >> you are a loyalist -- >> okay, wait.

we have -- >> i don't hear it. people who work in the white house. >> we did talk to janice minh in the last hour, who was at the dinner with roger ailes and steve bannon corroborated everything that was said. another passage notice wolf, michael wolff quoting a key member of the white house. a stunning reaction when learning james comey had been fired. pour it through brita's two-stage filter. dissolved solids remain? what if we filter it over and over? (sighing) oh dear. thank goodness zerowater's five-stage filter gets to all zeroes the first time. so, maybe it's time to upgrade. get more out of your water. get zerowater.

in the last segment we talked about the president's competency, which is a tough place to be but it where's some think we ought to be. jason, your point is people in the white house don't talk like that? >> correct, and the people who worked for the president going back to the transition team and on the campaign trail wouldn't talk like that about the president. so that's where i think a lot of this starts getting suspect and a lot of it might bes he hearsa because it doesn't add up. i talk to folks in the white house almost everyday and they never talk like this. they just don't. they love the president, they think he's doing a great job. >> but with every tweet that comes out there's nobody who

says "oy, is that a good idea?" the book talks about people rolling their eyes. >> earlier when i was praising paul, i'm sure paul disagreed with president clinton a couple times when he worked for him over the different years but it was never -- never became a personal thing, you didn't go bash him publicly. but this goes well beyond just maybe -- >> but it seems like the methods, if somebody said to him, oh, this person did this, then he would sort of include that. now, whether that's -- >> he'll have to defend his reporting but this does jibe with everyone else's reporting. the secretary of state called the president a blanking moron. was asked if that were true and he refused to deny it. that's as solid a confirmation as you can get. general mcmaster, the national security adviser, has been reported having called the president an idiot. he's in the book called him a dope. the secretary of the treasury in the book calls him an idiot.

reince priebus the chief of staff calls the president an idiot. >> i think rupert murdoch as well. >> rupert murdoch. but what's interesting is you have these wars for a president's soul. had them in the reagan white house, had them in the clinton white house, had them in the obama white house. what's different here is this isn't about policies. nobody is saying the president should move left or right or sign this veto or trade bill, they're saying he's unfit to serve. we've never seen this before where the people close to the president are screaming he's unfit to serve. >> domestically you could argue short term this is potentially beneficial for the president, amongst gop establishment, right? that if it's a decision between whether they're going to be with bannon or team trump, that maybe this pushes them closer to team trump, but to paul's point, larger picture globally, it's not just the u.s. that's reading this book and talking about it. it's salacious, but what are the consequences long term for us as a global power? you've got countries still trying to figure out what this president is all about, what these tweets mean, you've got

north korea and south korea really circumventing the u.s. and i think long term our place as a geopolitical leader is in balance right now when they're hearing that the people that they're supposed to be talking to in the white house think the president of the united states is quote/unquote a moron, an idiot, whatever you want to throw in. >> bianna, i would push back and say policies do matter and the policy this is president is putting into place is having an impact. the fact we have china -- >> what policies? >> with our tax cuts. the biggest tax cut of an entire generation that we just passed. china is going to u.s. companies right now and offering them incentives to stay and not bring everything back to the u.s. our economic policies are having a real difference -- >> trade deals also have implications. >> folks in ireland are freaked out that u.s. companies are going to take their money out of the banks in ireland and repatriot them to the u.s. our policies have having a real deal. look at india, saudi arabia,

israel, there are countries all around where trump has us moving in the right direction so i have to disagree with your assessment. >> coming up, a different kind of bomb. the so-called bomb cyclone, everybody seems to be using this term, i never heard of it before. but bad weather slammed the northeast bringing snow, hurricane force wind gusts wicked bad flooding in boston and beyond. it is winter, this does happen. the latest on it next. for my constipation, my doctor recommended i switch to miralax.

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up until this week you may never have heard of the term bomb cyclone, but if you live in the northeast, you are familiar with it now. it happens when a low pressure drops fast. 1300 people are under storm warnings. let's go to the cnn weathercenter for the latest. how long will the storm stick around? >> here are some of the numbers. massachusetts, new jersey, rhode island, new york, connecticut, eight states reported a foot of snow or more. the storm system that dropped in pressure rapidly is very rare, of course, since the beginning of the satellite era we've only had a couple, the center of the storm pressure dropping equivalent to a category three hur cape but the great news is it stayed offshore, about 250,

270 miles, keeping the hurricane-force winds off the coastline. only three areas reported hurricane wind gusts and that's in eastern massachusetts. notice the flow in the great lakes? that's the cold air moving in toward the northeast green bay minus 15, pittsburgh minus 12. by the time the cold air moves into new york i don't think we'll have windchills above zero tomorr tomorrow. on saturday, minus 15, boston a windchill of minus 26. some interior areas of new england minus 30, minus 35. only an inch of snow in washington, d.c., wasn't expected to be much, philadelphia picked up four, jersey coast over 13 inches, atlantic city, we got a good almost ten inches in central park but in boston a record high tide occurred. it was a record of 15.1 from the blizzard of '78, they surpassed that today. waves of water and sea into the streets of boston, now undergoing a flash freeze which means the scores of automobiles will be locked in ice for days.

all of the warnings are slowly getting erased, which is good news. the storm makes land fall in new brunswick later tonight but then the cold air moves in and it will be bitter. high temperatures in the single digits in boston. >> tom, appreciate that. thanks very much for watching "360." time to hand things over to jake tapper. "the lead" starts right now. . good evening and welcome to a special prime time edition of "the lead," i'm jake tapper. amidst the stormy and capricious seas that president trump is battling caused by the shocking allegations and vicious quotes in the new book "fire and fury, inside the trump white house" a book that is raising serious questions about the president's capacity to lead. a new squall of a different sort has emerged this evening, breaking news in the russia investigation. coming out a short time nag tag the "new york times,"